


Mind Mischief

by kristsune



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Body Swap, Just a bit of silliness, M/M, Realizations, i love him too, sorry he's just like that, spoilers for 168, they're both so dumb and i love them terribly, whoops i had to do the thing, wilde is wilde
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26298061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristsune/pseuds/kristsune
Summary: Barnes wakes up in a position he did not fall asleep in. One only knows what position he'll be in later.
Relationships: Commander James Barnes/Howard Carter (Rusty Quill Gaming)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 48





	Mind Mischief

**Author's Note:**

> I'm blaming both Ben and angel ascending for this, though mostly angel for putting the idea in my head that i could actually write this. though ben flubbing the name certainly gave the whole idea credence XD  
> title from a Tame Impala song, which seems to be a trend for them :D
> 
> this is a continuation of [this fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26131882) but doesnt need to be read to understand this, but it gives a bit of context

Barnes blinked his eyes sleepily, feeling surprisingly rested, but as soon as he attempted to move he immediately became aware of the horrid crick in his neck. How in the hell did he get that when he was leaning back against the wall? He had his ‘seated sleeping’ down to a science due to having to do it so often. And whose chest was he curled up against?

Wait,  _ what _ ?

Barnes’ eyes snapped open bringing his hand up to be confronted with long thin hands that he was  _ extremely _ familiar with but  _ were not his hands _ . He pushed himself up to look at who he was laying on, and was confronted with his own fucking face blinking awake back at him.

He couldn’t stop the soft, “Oh, what the  _ fuck _ ,” that escaped him. 

Watching his own face go through the stages of barely being awake, realizing something was wrong, to shock, and then panic was… disconcerting, to say the least. 

“My face! What are you doing with  _ my face _ !!??”

“Carter??”

“Yes it’s Carter!! Who else would I be?! Who are you?!  _ In my body _ . Oh  _ god _ the curse is back, I knew it was too good to be true, oh no.” Carter put his face - Barnes face - in his hands and made a sound Barnes wasn’t even aware he had the ability to make. 

As freaked out as Barnes was, Carter spiralling was infinitely worse. Time to head this off  _ right _ now. Barnes grabbed Carter’s shoulders and gave him a bit of a shake (nothing much, just enough to get his attention and actually look at him), “Carter?! Carter!  _ Howard _ ! Howard it’s me! It’s Barnes. It’s James.”

Howard blinked a few times and looked up, “James?” 

“Yes, it’s me.”

“But.. but you’re me?”

“I - It certainly seems to be that way.” 

“Well… I guess that’s alright then.”

If Barnes had been facing away he would have done a hard double take. “You were moaning about being cursed not thirty seconds ago, and now ‘well that’s alright then.’?” 

A blush started to rise in Howard’s cheeks, and oh, okay, so that’s why Howard always smiled so fondly when he managed to get Barnes to blush. And that was a thought Barnes was going to firmly set aside for later. Instead he just raised an eyebrow, and wow Barnes objectively knew Howard had expressive eyebrows, but making them work was an entirely new experience.

“Well… I mean, I guess - I - I don’t mind you being me, because you know…” Howard was getting redder by the moment, hands fidgeting, looking for knives in his sleeves that weren’t there because whoops wrong sleeves. It was entirely endearing, it really was, but good lord, Carter,  _ get to the point _ . “It’s you, yeah?”

Oh.

_ Oh _ .

**Oh** .

Barnes felt his mouth slip into a lopsided smile, “Yeah?”

“Shut it. Don’t make me say it.” Howard smacked his arm, and no wonder Howard always complained of bruises, because that managed to hurt. His eyes widened in surprise, telling Barnes that he had not factored in the extra strength he had in Barnes’ body. 

Barnes reached out and twined his hand with Howard’s, “I won’t…. Yet.”

Howard opened his mouth to protest when Wilde knelt down beside them, “You two doing alright over here? Who are you anyway?”

“I’m him.”

“He’s me.” 

They answered in unison. 

Wilde arched an elegant eyebrow, with a ghost of his old smile, “Well isn’t that a fun predicament for the two of you.”

Howard shrugged a shoulder, giving Barnes’ hand a squeeze, “Could be worse.”

Barnes smiled back at him. He heard Wilde’s exaggerated sigh, “We were going to try and figure out how to reverse this, if you decided you were done and would like to join the rest of the group.”

Barnes turned to see everyone (except Hamid, or well, Hamid’s body, still out on the floor) just staring at them. Barnes cleared his throat, as Howard gave the others a little wave, “Ahh, sure. We’ll be right there.”

Wilde started to stand, but stopped partway, “Oh, and Barnes, if you wanted to be inside Carter, I’m sure all you would’ve needed to do, was ask.” He winked, and turned back towards the others as Barnes silently spluttered. 

He turned to Howard for his response to that, and much to his surprise, Howard did not come to his defence and was in fact, just smiling at him, “He’s not wrong. Woulda said yes.”

Barnes closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Why is this my life right now?”

Rather than taking that as the rhetorical question it was, Carter decided to answer anyway, “Dunno, but we could try some things out like this, if we had the time, you know. for fun.”

Barnes just groaned, and started to untangle from Carter (more difficult than it should have been, how did he manage so much limb? Long arms, and longer legs) to try, and help the others figure this out. Not that he’d have much to add, but he might as well try. Carter quickly followed, almost tripping, attempting to compensate for long legs he no longer had, and whispered in Barnes’ ear, “But we could try though, right? If we find the time?”

Barnes couldn’t deny the attraction of the idea, but later. He would think about that,  _ later _ . There were other things they needed to focus on first. Azu looking sheepish with a Hamid name tag and one of the kobolds with an Azu tag stamping around looking nonplussed were definitely two of those things.

“Sure Howard, if we find the time.”

Barnes pointedly ignored the soft, hissed “ _ Yes _ ,” from beside him. Later, he would focus on that.  _ Later _ . He brought his hand up to automatically run his fingers through his - Howard’s - mustache, like it was muscle memory. This may be a fun experiment, but christ, Barnes hoped this wasn’t permanent, how did Howard deal with this all the time? 

As he thought that, Howard snaked his hand between them and laced their fingers together. Well, Barnes thought, at least they were still with each other. Things couldn’t get too bad. Hopefully.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to stop by and say hello over on [tumblr](https://kristsune.tumblr.com/) or [twitter!](https://twitter.com/Kristsune)


End file.
